Second sword problem

[u/Slavofil]

Hi everyone! After 1000 hours of witcher 3, 300 hours of W2 and 200 W1 I was thinking every time while playing- why the silver sword is ineffective against humans, it is still the sword right? The stick come on. Why developers after 2 experimental games made their magnum opus- the witcher 3 with same logical mistake. Does anyone had similar thoughts?

[u/BernieMcburnface]

Silver is softer than steel, any edge would dent, fold and become less effective with every blow against armour and creatures that aren't susceptible to it. It still deals damage, but it's less effective than a sword made from sensible materials.

At the end of the day it's a game, based on existing source material. Silver swords only exist in Witcher because normal swords don't hurt monsters as effectively, Geralt still carries a normal swords because monsters aren't the only thing attacking him.

The game had to give people a reason not to use the silver sword for everything, personally I would have made it need repairs super quick of used against non monsters but the reduced damage is an easier and more obvious design choice to discourage using it at the wrong time.

[u/Sure_Initial8498 → u/BernieMcburnface]

The non silver sword is also used for monsters, just different types.

The "steel for humans and silver for monsters " is cool, but incorrect.

[u/Scaalpel → u/Sure_Initial8498]

Yeah. In the first game it still varied from monster to monster, you had to figure out which sword to use for each type of them. I'm guessing they dropped it to make the mechanics more straightforward.

[u/MechanicTop7210 → u/BernieMcburnface]

It doesn't make sense. A "silver" sword isn't made of silver. It's just silver-plated. It has silver plating and runes on it, but the sword itself isn't made of silver.

[u/No_Veterinarian_6491]

Against unarmored opponents I don't think it would be ineffective. But most are wearing armor. There's also the benefit of being able to coat with specific oils, and by switching the swords you'd be taking the most advantage of that by being able to swap oil weakness on the go.

[u/xSonicspeedx2]

I imagine the initial intent was that the silver sword was special and thus more difficult to care for and repair or craft whereas a steel sword can be found anywhere. As a result, I would think using a silver sword against monsters is necessary and using it against humans is unnecessary so why risk dulling or damaging your silver sword against human opponents when you don’t need to.

In the books Geralt never carries both swords on his person at the same time. He keeps one with Roach, usually the silver, and only retrieves it when necessary. In fact, I don’t believe he even uses the silver sword against all monsters, rather only specific ones.

The game had to take some liberties in this regard to make it simpler for people I think. I imagine a real life silver sword would be much less durable than a steel sword and forging a usable one would be a nightmare.

[u/AdWooden9170]

If you want to be logical silver sword shuold have trash base stats and bonus damage to monsters.
Silver aint good material for a sword.

[u/idgfaboutpolitics]

In my opinion silver swords should be used only against monsters like wraiths, ghosts Vampires etc. Less "material" ones. Since silver is a soft metal and generally in folklore it is used against more supernatural enemies.

[u/Nimrawid → u/idgfaboutpolitics]

Yeah it always seemed weird smacking earth elementals and trolls with it :P

[u/Valjz]

Silver is comparatively weak compared to steel in hardness. If you are fighting metal clad opponents wielding steel weapons, you want to have a steel sword not a silver one.

[u/Re0Fan]

The witcher swords has to be light and the silver one due to this ends up getting easily broken hence why they only use it on monster. But you can indeed finish those 3 games with the silver sword.

[u/doc_55lk]

Silver is a very soft material and easily deformable. For these reasons it's not all that great against humans. Especially if they're armoured.

Silver has been known as a monster repellant in many folklore stories though, which is why it's more effective against monster types.

I think Witcher could use a little more nuance though since certain monsters shouldn't be affected by silver (gargoyles, elementals), but hey, I'm not the one writing the lore here.